pioneer

Pioneer childrens magazine from Estonia. It kinda reminds me of an outdoorsie Highlights. Aren't the illustrations superb! + I love the off-registered printing on the gem stamps.

To see more please visit my flickr.

ANCIENT MAN

I'm very fond of this book.

Ancient Man
The Beginning of Civilizations

Written and Drawn and Done into Color by Hendrik Willem Van Loon, A.B., PH.D.
New York. Boni & Liveright. 1920


and his Dedication:

To HANSJE AND WILLEM.

My darling boys,

You are twelve and eight years old. Soon you will be grown up. You will leave home and begin your own lives. I have been thinking about that day, wondering what I could do to help you. At last, I have had an idea. The best compass is a thorough understanding of the growth and the experience of the human race. Why should I not write a special history for you?

So I took my faithful Corona and five bottles of ink and a box of matches and a bale of paper and began to work upon the first volume. If all goes well there will be eight more and they will tell you what you ought to know of the last six thousand years.

But before you start to read let me explain what I intend to do.

I am not going to present you with a textbook. Neither will it be a volume of pictures. It will not even be a regular history in theaccepted sense of the word.

I shall just take both of you by the hand and together we shall wander forth to explore the intricate wilderness of the bygone ages.

I shall show you mysterious rivers which seem to come from nowhere and which are doomed to reach no ultimate destination.

I shall bring you close to dangerous abysses, hidden carefully beneath a thick overgrowth of pleasant but deceiving romance.

Here and there we shall leave the beaten track to scale a solitary and
lonely peak, towering high above the surrounding country.

Unless we are very lucky we shall sometimes lose ourselves in a sudden and dense fog of ignorance.

Wherever we go we must carry our warm cloak of human sympathy and understanding for vast tracts of land will prove to be a sterile desert--swept by icy storms of popular prejudice and personal greed and unless we come well prepared we shall forsake our faith in humanity and that, dear boys, would be the worst thing that could happen to any
of us.

I shall not pretend to be an infallible guide. Whenever you have a chance, take counsel with other travelers who have passed along the same route before. Compare their observations with mine and if this leads you to different conclusions, I shall certainly not be angry with you.

I have never preached to you in times gone by.

I am not going to preach to you today.

You know what the world expects of you--that you shall do your share of the common task and shall do it bravely and cheerfully.

If these books can help you, so much the better.

And with all my love I dedicate these histories to you and to the boys and girls who shall keep you company on the voyage through life.

HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON.

1 2 3 4 5...

Found! A mini collection of weekly Milwaukee bus passes between the years of 1930–1979. I would love to know more about the keeper of these—certainly the owner held a steady job.

The transit system changed names over the course of 40 years as did the design; great shifts in color palettes and typographic sensibilities. We've got some great fluorescent inks that my scanner couldn't capture...

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company > T.M.E.R.& T. Co. > Milwaukee & Suburban Transport Corporation > The Transport Co. > Milwaukee County Transit System

more here
+
a refresher of who and what was in the news 100 years ago + Washington's teeeeth. thank you Library of Congress for keeping me off the streets.

fall miscellany

we've been quite busy here with parents visiting, school school and more school, flickring, gardening and some fall fieldtrips!

so here are some pretty shoddy photos for y'all!

plaster circus toys from the state fair museum
should have bought circus game creatures from hunt & gather
lived in backyard from above
small things gathered before vacuuming
+
a friendly restaurant in nyc.

flickr f-u-n !

I've recently set myself up on flickr. Please check back for more sets!

doubles

good finds + happy accidents!
this weekend i hope to upload a slew of more old finds to my new flickr!

phillumeny

my stash!

Phillumeny flickr pool

These two sheets are from the Solo Lipnik matchbox factory.

summer beasties!

I've got a backlog of summerfun and new findings that I must share—my three week holiday followed by school prep has left me short of time. Whhohoot, I'm back!

1 kiddo under bucket. 2 freaky garden fruits. 3 huge spider living on our window.
4 cool monkeylion found at mn state fair. 5. sidewalk antics.

wales

the last portion of our summer has been travel-filled! we spent the later half of july and beg. of august in midwales visiting tim's family and their many pets (they are down to one indoor bunny named Wyn, tortoise Olga and Matty the horse). I'm still fascinated that tim grew up with an owl residing in the livingroom and a kestrel in the kitchen.

Anyhow our tripped was filled with hiking in low-drifting clouds, wine-filled evenings, rainy beach days, getting lost in Snowdonia National Park and catching up with cousins that aren't really kids anymore. the holiday was looooong overdue as it'd been three years since our last visit.

NOW, no more summer lolligagging > school madness begins on Monday!

summer miscellany

things things things that make me happy.

gauzy hooded towel
old pinwheel—a gift from nana to my kiddo
memoir from my philly trip
morning antics
+
good kitty stencil (midwest and east coast companions?!).

wonder questions

a collection of good questions snipped from some of my favorite books.

#14, 13, 10, 4 and 7 !!!

I'm gushy from all of your comments and support! According to random.org the winners are 14, 13, 10, 4 and 7 which equates to ahoi, Sandi, la casita, Linda and Gina ! (sorry, the process is a bit impersonal). please leave a comment or email me your addresses and i'll get your posters out to you—it's exciting that they are traveling to the UK, Winnipeg, NYC…!

here's my email: kindra_murphy@mcad.edu

appreciation

-------------------------------------------------------

Hello out there!

I was stalling on this five-hundredth post — planning to create something monumental. To keep things moving, let's make due with the most magnificent magnolia tree EVER, a cobbled sequence of summerfun, AND little a give-away.

To those who peek here — thanks so much for visiting. I'd like to express my gratitude by giving away a handful of posters. Just leave a comment by Friday morning and note which one you'd like > select from the minimini thumbnails 1 – 12. The posters look quite nice in kid and baby rooms as they're high contrast. Size is 28 x 36 inches. I'll draw five names.
again thanks so much for commenting and stopping by!

has anyone entered one of these here r-a-f-f-l-e-s?